University head 'inspected' hotel for sale

By Peter Trute

23 July 2014 — 1:26pm

Former University of New England (UNE) chancellor John Cassidy was found "inspecting" a country hotel that his university was selling off, a corruption inquiry has heard.

Mr Cassidy is facing allegations before the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) that he used confidential university information to help his business partner win a closed tender for Armidale's Tattersalls Hotel.

Former Tattersalls manager Steven Snell told the inquiry on Wednesday that he discovered the then-chancellor in the upstairs apartments of the three-storey pub in November, 2005.

Mr Snell said he had been told someone was "wandering around, inspecting the hotel".

On being confronted Mr Cassidy asked the manager how to get out of the hotel.

"I said `the way you came in here'," Mr Snell told the commission.

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The commission has heard Mr Cassidy's business partner, Darrell Hendry, bought the Tattersalls Hotel for $2.65 million in December that year after submitting a late bid that topped other offers received in a closed tender.

Mr Snell told the commission he saw Mr Cassidy and Mr Hendry lunching at the hotel numerous times in December after the sale went through.

UNE's student union was forced to sell the Tattersalls in an asset liquidation and Mr Cassidy, as chancellor, had access to a confidential valuation of $2.35 million.

The inquiry has heard Mr Cassidy regarded the valuation as below market value.

Mr Cassidy told the directors overseeing the sale he had no relationship with Mr Hendry, the commission has heard.

However Mr Hendry has testified that he was alerted to the hotel sale by Mr Cassidy, and that he expected Mr Cassidy to be a partner in the purchase.

Both men were directors in a company, Vercot, through which Mr Cassidy ultimately owned a stake in the hotel.

Mr Cassidy announced he had invested in the hotel on January 20, 2006, saying he decided to act only the day before.

The commission has heard evidence that lawyers had drawn up ownership documents bearing his name in December, 2005.

The inquiry in Sydney also heard from Phillip Franklin on Wednesday.

Mr Franklin was employed as manager of the Tattersalls from February, 2006, and testified he was told of the opportunity by Mr Cassidy's nephew, Shaun, with whom he played rugby.

The commission heard Mr Franklin met with Mr Hendry, John Cassidy and Shaun Cassidy in an Armidale cafe in December, 2005 and was offered the job.

Shaun Cassidy, a winemaker at a vineyard owned by his uncle, told the commission he did not recall attending a meeting, and did not have a clear recollection of his uncle asking him if he knew of anyone who could be manager.